Research Paper - Contemporary Logistics

Advice from the Effective Writing Center

TO: Denise Gallimore-Allen

FROM: Joan Mitcheil

DATE: April 1, 2019

SUBJECT: Collaboration 

Congratulations on your progress in writing this assignment for ASCM 632.

My name is Joan, and it’s my pleasure to work with you today. Writing is both an art and a science; we will work on some important cornerstones to help ground you. Before we begin, let’s review a few important guidelines and resources:

· Students may submit one request for advice (either written feedback or live online advising) every 48 hours.

· You are welcome to come to the Effective Writing Center for help at any stage in the writing process, whether you are just getting started an assignment or want feedback on a rough draft.

· Resources to help you revise your writing assignment are hyperlinked within this letter and in the More Resources section at the end.

· Before reading this advice, please review the writing that you submitted. We’ve pasted your draft at the end of this advice letter.

At the EWC we are attentive readers who help you improve as a writer by explaining and modeling effective writing skills. For a more detailed discussion of our services, please click this link and visit the Effective Writing Center web site .

Are You Interested in More Help?

Schedule a Live Advising Appointment!

· The Effective Writing Center also offers live, online advising via teleconference. You can submit an appointment request through the MyUMUC portal .

Attend an Online Workshop!  

· The EWC hosts monthly live workshops in Google Hangouts. Our complete calendar is available here .

Join the Google+ Community!

· Join the UMUC Effective Writing Center Google+ community . Here, all UMUC students and faculty members can find resources to help students improve their writing. Whether you are a student who needs your paper reviewed or a faculty member who would like us to provide a guest lecture on writing for your class, the EWC is here to help. Click here to join!

Advice Overview

Denise, we will discuss the following strategies that can help you to strengthen your paper:

· thesis statement

· paragraph structure

· APA style formatting

As I work with your review, I will use green to highlight your work and red for my suggestions, so that you will be able to see any revisions. I hope this proves helpful. Also included will be websites dealing with the area under discussion for you to check out for further reference.

Although we will cover revisions and rules, your professor’s instructions always take precedence over any advice you receive from the EWC. If you have any questions, refer to your assignment guidelines first and don’t hesitate to ask your professor to clarify any unanswered questions.

Assignment Management

Denise, I thank you for submitting most of the assignment requirements. Our goal is to ensure that your paper meets your professor’s assignment requirements as closely as possible, so this information is a big help!

Following assignment guidelines is one of the most important aspects of academic writing and we can be of much greater service to you if you provide us with a full description of what your instructor expects in your paper. Knowing the page length and other details affects how focused the thesis needs to be.

Below is a table with an overview of your assignment, what you have completed, and what you need to fulfill the requirements.

Assignment Requirement	You Have	You Need
5-8 page report on a company selected from the list supplied	You only have 4.5 pages and need to expand this to at least five pages	An argumentative thesis and better paragraphing
Use at least 6 scholarly references	You only have six and they are Internet dot coms, not scholarly articles	Use the library database of scholarly academic articles for the bulk of your references
APA style formatting	Not fully APA style formatting	Follow all the conventions of APA style formatting

See Understanding Assignments

See Analyzing the Assignment

Thesis & Organization

Goals:

· Articulate your thesis, argument, main idea, and/or purpose clearly.

· Organize your document or presentation in a manner that promotes understanding.

Your thesis statement needs to identify the particular slant or particular angle you intend to argue. The thesis comes at the end of the introductory paragraph or is the last one before the first subtitle. We need to know what you are arguing for here, whom or what against, and the outcome. This is the definition of an argumentative thesis statement.

The thesis statement controls the focus of the paper; the thesis is where you narrow the topic to the one or two points you can cover in depth. Since the thesis or purpose statement should answer the question but be able to stand alone, you might consider an argumentative thesis statement since this is your opinion. Let us look at what you have written.

Coca cola is one of the most successful companies in the world today, it has a wide reach and many people in the world are well conversant with it.

This is a very bland statement and it is not an argumentative thesis statement. What particular aspect of Coca Cola are you going to cover? Remember, your instructor suggested narrowing the topic to some aspect of a large subject. He or she is looking for a more in depth analysis than this.

The thesis should tell the reader in general what the essay argues in depth. Follow this format for an argumentative thesis.

Although Coca Cola is one of the most successful companies in the world today, a major external collaboration to Coca-Cola is with Monster Beverage Corporation.

Arguments use deductive reasoning that tells the reader up front in the thesis what the essay argues. Remember, since the thesis statement should answer in general the instructor’s question, it controls the rest of the essay. The thesis statement plus the topic sentences should equal the concluding statement. Use this fill in the blank model to craft an argumentative thesis of your own.

See Argumentative thesis

See University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center

If you'd like to learn more about citing sources in tables, you can follow this link to the APA Style Blog's Post on Navigating Copyright: How to Cite Sources in a Table

Development & Research

Goals:

· Develop coherent paragraphs, points, and/or sections so that each is internally unified and functions as a part of your entire document or presentation.

· Tailor your communications to the audience.

· Provide sufficient support for your ideas

· Integrate material from research (if required) smoothly into your own content.

A well-developed paragraph has good paragraph construction. The topic sentence, normally the first one in the interior paragraphs, gives us the topic or subject you will discuss in the paragraph. All the sentences in the paragraph should relate to that subject.

These all need to be linked together with good transitions so the material seems logical and smooth. In order to contain all this, most paragraphs contain more than seven sentences. All of the paragraphs, including the introduction and the conclusion should be well-developed ones. Let me give you an example of a typical interior paragraph in outline form.

A Typical paragraph

1. Topic sentence

2. Transition in the form of a sentence or a phrase going into the first support

3. First reason or support

4. Example supporting this

5 Transition in the form of a sentence or a phrase going into the first support

6. Second reason or support

7. Example supporting this

8. Concluding sentence with lead in to next topic

Now, each paragraph should have one topic sentence and all the material in the paragraph should relate to it. Remember, paragraphs have topic sentences that should support your thesis. Let us look at one of yours.

Coca cola has also partnered with its customers to get feedback for any concerns that they may hold. This helps in the process of value addition and consumer satisfaction. Coca cola’s main customers include restaurants, small businesses and retailers. The company has account management teams which provide services which are geared towards satisfying the customer’s needs. The customers are the middlemen to the consumers and they seek to increase sales and improve profits by reducing the costs. Coca cola on the other hand anticipated their demands and can come up with solutions for their most burning concerns (Meza, 2017).

This only has six short sentences and is not a fully developed paragraph. Notice I have highlighted the topic sentence, which does not support the thesis statement. Most academic paragraphs are denser and contain more details than those on the Internet. In order to revise this essay, I suggest we look at the functions of paragraphs.

The introduction should begin with an arresting first sentence to tempt the reader to read your essay or letter. It should briefly introduce the topic and provide any definitions needed to understand the thesis and end with the thesis statement.

The interior paragraphs should each have a topic sentence (normally the first one in the paragraph) that adds a support of the thesis statement and sets the topic within the paragraph. Every sentence should relate to the topic.

Then, the conclusion should revisit (not repeat) the thesis, sum up the topic sentences (normally the first one in the paragraph), and end with a concluding statement that calls for more research, makes a prediction, or relates your subject to another in a novel way. The conclusion demonstrates the logical path of the argument. You should avoid having quoted material in the conclusion as it introduces new material.

You might consider outlining by paragraph to revise your paragraphs where necessary. Some of your interior paragraphs are well developed. Make sure the introduction and the conclusion are fully developed too!

See The Paragraph

See Paragraphs and Topic Sentences

See Developing an Outline

Formatting & Citations

Goals:

· Format paper according to the rules of required style.

· Cite sources according to the rules of your required style.

Now, let us work on some style formatting using APA concepts and requirements. To refresh, APA style formatting covers three areas - the paper’s looks, conventions of writing, and citations. Let us start with the paper’s looks, or its formatting.

· You are using Times New Roman 12-point font; it is the official font of APA. Congrats!

· You need an APA style title page that has a header and the right information. Your header on the title page should be Running Head: THE SHORTENED VERSION OF THE TITLE in the left hand margin and the page number in the right.

· Then, come halfway down the page and center the full title, your name, and your university. That is all you need.

· For the rest of the paper you need a header that has the shortened title in all capitals in the far left hand margin and the page number in the right.

1. I also suggest an academic style title such as, Collaboration: Coca Cola. Remember to center the full title on the first page of the essay. Do not bold the title.

1. You need to integrate your quoted material. You should not begin or end a paragraph with a quotation. That means the quoted material needs to be introduced, quoted, cited, and then explained to the reader in terms of what it adds to your thesis. Whether a direct quotation, a paraphrase, or a summary, you would integrate it into the paragraph.

As to citations

· In-text citations are normally (author’s last name, year of publication, page or paragraph number). For instance, you might quote me as in, The Writing Advisor says, “All material that is directly quoted, summarized, or paraphrased should have both an in-text citation and an entry in the References page” (Mitcheil, 2013, p. 7).

· The References page, which should be a separate page, has a strict order of citation. Citations are listed by author’s last name alphabetically. They are double-spaced, with the first line flush left and subsequent lines indented five spaces. You have reversed yours!

· APA requires the full citation of any web sites. Do not hyperlink web sites. They have the same information as articles and books do so you need to use that. You should not use a web site as an in-text citation.

· I suggest you use the library database of scholarly academic articles for the bulk of your references. You have done this! Congrats!

· A book or major work is italicized, but an article, such as is in a web site, is only done in upper and lower case letters.

· All sources listed in the References must have an in-text citation in the essay.

For more information and examples of citations, see the following sites.

See APA Style

See APA Research Papers

See APA Citations

Grammar & Mechanics

Goals:

· Use sentence structure appropriate for your task, message, and audience.

· Follow conventions of Standard Written English.

It is important to proofread your work after you complete your draft and before you submit your work. I spotted a few areas for improvement so I will point out a few and give you a website to help you proofread when you finish your draft.

An example is the Coca Cola hug machine, which gives you a drink in exchange for a hug (Lu & Tiwana, 2015, page or paragraph number).

You is second person narrative voice. You should be writing in third person narrative voice. In this case, you can just delete it. I have capitalized both parts of the company name. Notice I have also indicated the missing portion of your in-text citation.

It also protects the suppliers by ensuring continuous operation since closure because of going against the above policies could lead to closure (Meza, 2017).

You have inverted the highlighted words. It should be “policies above.” I have also marked your in-text citation because you omitted the page and paragraph number and because five of your paragraphs ended like this.

You should avoid ending a paragraph with an un-explicated quotation. When you end with only one in-text citation, instructors sometime think the whole paragraph is a quotation.

External collaborations are mostly through online communities such as twitter, Facebook, blogs, and many more.

Notice I have added a missing comma after things in a series. You have many of these in your essay.

This collaboration gave Coca cola a 16.7% percent minority share in Monster and a position of 2 directors.

Here, you should spell out percent and “of 2” should be “with two.” Notice I have supplied a missing article.

See How to Proofread

Summary

Denise, good luck! Your last paragraph is more an interior paragraph than a conclusion. I suggest you write a conclusion that does what it should do. I also recommend better resources than these dot coms, which may be biased As you continue your work on this project, be sure to:

1. Analyze the assignment carefully

2. Always submit the complete assignment to the EWC

3. Guide your paper with a strong thesis statement

4. Make sure the topic sentences support the thesis

5. Follow APA style formatting

6. Proofread carefully

Joan Mitcheil

Writing Advisor:

The Effective Writing Center

www.umuc.edu/ewc

More Resources

Understanding Assignments at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/688/1/ x

Analyzing the Assignment at http://wire.rutgers.edu/research_assignments.html x

Thesis Statements at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml

University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Thesis_ or_ Purpose.html

The Paragraph at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_pgrph2.html

Developing Unified and Coherent Paragraphs at http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/parunif.html

Developing an Outline at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_outlin.html

APA Style at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

APA Research Papers at http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/

APA Citations at http://www.library.cornell.edu/node/147

APA Style Manuel at http://www.apastyle.org/

How to Proofread at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Proofreading.html